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Show 466 REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SOHOOLS. EXTRACETRO M DISCUSSION. [Dr. A.E. Wlas~~p,Baston,Ms+s.] One of the immortals has told ua that we are up against a condition and not a theory. The Indians in this country are here and here. they are going to stay. They are not going to die off, and they oan not be kept on reservntions shut out from the rest of the world as they have heenin the paat. The boys and girls should be taught that if they do not work they can not live, and they should bebought to realize that if they do not know anything they can not work advantageously. The reservation and ration system are obstacles to progress nnd pauperizing to the Indian, and the red man must he brought to the full realization that he must work for his living the same as any other man. INTROSPECTION. [E.A . ~ W N sn, p erintendent Pleneoa Indian Schml, Indian Territory.] Is it true as charged that there may be fonnd in the various schools of the mun-try many pupils who are there without right? That superintendents are diacov-ering new Indians to fill these new buildings? Thereison the list of subjects to be discussed at this convention the well-worn but always appropriate one of how many grains of Indian pigment an applicant for admission to our schools should be able to demonstrate the presence of and whether it should be required to have been derived from the father's side of the house. I shall not poach upon the grounds of those who would solve the question by fractious. It seems appropri-ate, however, to state that the child should have some Indian blood to be eligible, and it has been charged, and probably trnthfnlly, too, that some have been admit-ted who can place no numerator in the fraction showing native extraction. The cases of this variety are not nearly so numerous as those of the admission of per-sons who, though they have the requisite proportion of Indian color to please the most fastidious, are unfitted by reason of their ageor mental make-up to be there. Whoisnot acqnainted with the chronic school goer who has attended a half dozen different ones, going from one to the other as his fancy dictates, always at the expense of the Government? He never beoomes over age, though wrinkles other thanof care are appearing on his brow. Thousandsof dollars are wasted annually on this variety of pupils. Thereoame to my notice a few years ago the case of one young man who asked two schools to bid for his attendance. He wrote the head of one that the head of a rival institution-we have rival institntions--had made him a certain offer to come to his school and he wanted to knowif he muld offer better inducements. There seem to be two great strugglesgoingon in many localitiesof ourservioe-one, to secure more buildings, theotherto fill thosewealready have. The impres-sion seems to be abroadand hasinvaded some high places even tbat the usefulness anddignity of a school and the caliber of a superintendent is measured by the number of pupils that he gathers together without proper regard io the amount of good or harm done to them. Here we have a man who measures by that standard 250: and he, feeling the rule too short and tbat he is capable of greater things, goes to work on the office and his Congressman to increase him GO 500. He desires to extend rather than intensify his efforts, to know casually a great many pupils rather than to impreas rafoundly a few. It is offered that we are oonstantly straining after more builjings, more pupils, more employees, forget-ting that the child is the only valuable thing in our passession, though theonly article for which we are not under bond, and that all effort is wasted that does not make directly for the building of him into a proper manhood. The impression that numbers make or even oondnoe lwgely to excellence is very erroneous. China is the most populous country on the globe, hut no one wouldcall it the greatest. The accusation is heard, and, I fear, with more than a gr?in of truth hehind it, that we are engaged in ad nnreasoning competition in the hne of diaplay. While we see an inoreasing im ortanoe acoorded in the educational thought of the world to the polytechnic schoof, the variety tbat is most popular in our little world may more properly be called pyrotechnic. The band, the baseball and football teams, the music and art classes, and the soh001 paper, however uaefnl they map be as adjuncts, fail of their proper function when they are pointed toas the chief glory. Have you heard of the school where class room and shop work is suspended when there are visitors of note and the pupils are put upon dress parade? Such diaplays appeal to the admiration of the casual and indiscriminating people who form a large proportion of our visitors, but they can not win the approvsl of the true educator. |
